Each October during Frieze Week, Artlyst releases the Art PowerLyst, the alternative to ArtReview’s Power 100. Many think that AR’s list is erroneous and tired, with a criteria based on ‘sheer financial clout.’ It is dominated by commercial gallery owners, big-buck artists, and misguided auctioneers.
The ArtLyst editorial staff believe that achievement should not be compromised for the sake of the dollar, so we have created our own alternative list, instead of a Machiavellian Power List that has more in common with the Times ‘Rich List’. This year we have put together a Resourceful PowerLyst that celebrates exactly what it says on the tin – not those with the fiscal muscle to bend the artworld into whatever shape they please, but those with the creative power and ability to influence and augment the British and international art scenes through merit alone.
Out go the Gagosians, the Emins Sotheby’s and Christies. In come the organisers of Peckham and Hackney’s finest events, the Director of Artangel, the curators and heads of art colleges across the country. Yes: let us gratuitously pat ourselves on the back for the fourth consecutive year: here is the ArtLyst Power 100 Alternative Power List, in alphabetical order plus our curated Top 10 for 2014.
Artlyst Power Top 10
1. Grayson Perry: artist known for his work in ceramics, and awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, self-curated show The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum 2011, received BAFTA in 2013 for his series All in the best possible Taste and will deliver this year’s Reith Lectures for Radio 4
2.Clare Lilley: Director of Programme Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was voted 2014 Museum of the year.
3.Sally Tallant: Director of Liverpool Biennial 2014
4. Richard Tuttle: post minimalist artist, Tate Modern Turbine Hall Commission 2014, Whitechapel Exhibition
5.Steve McQueen: Turner Prize winning video artist turned Oscar winning Filmmaker for this year’s 12 Years A Slave
6.James Lingwood/ Michael Morris: Co-Directors of Artangel since 1991, responsible for building Artangel into a significant international commissioning and producing organisation.
7.Anita and Poju Zabludowicz: founded the Zabludowicz Collection in 2007, a space for exhibitions, commissions and residencies, as well as establishing the Zabludowicz Collection ‘Curatorial Open’ and ‘Testing Ground’ programmes to promote contemporary art education.
8.Gillian Wearing: OBE, RA Conceptual artist, shortlisted for 2014 Netherlands Vincent Award for “appreciably influencing the development of contemporary art in Europe.”
9. Anselm Kiefer: Painter, sculptor subject of Royal Academy’s 2014 Autumn exhibition
Artlyst Power 100 In Alphabetical Order
10. Iwona Blazwick: Director of Art at the Whitechapel Gallery, former Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Modern, and Chair of Cultural Strategy Group, London.
Artlyst Power 100 in Alphabetical Order
1. Marina Abramovic: Serbian New York-based artist, and the self-professed ‘grandmother of performance art’, who began her ground-breaking career in the early 1970s.
2. Michael Archer: Programme Director of BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, art critic and freelance writer,
contributing regularly to the Guardian Culture section on contemporary art from 1960 onwards.
3. Ziba Ardalan: founder and Director/Curator of Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, a privately-funded educational charity and a not-for-profit art gallery.
4.Karen Ashton: founder and organizer Art Car Boot Fair (new)
5. Phyllida Barlow: RA, Sculptor , 2014 Tate Britain commission
6. Nicelle Beauchene: President NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance)
7. Peter Blake: English pop artist, who celebrated his 80th birthday last year and continues to be a major force in the art world
8. *Iwona Blazwick: Director of Art at the Whitechapel Gallery, former Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Modern, and Chair of Cultural Strategy Group, London.
9.Erica Bolton/Jane Quinn: PR gurus and organisational magicians at Bolton & Quinn Ltd.
10. Craig Burnett: arts writer and Director Sprueth Magers
11. Jonathan Burton and Sarah Monk: London Art Fair Directors. Sarah has been Fair Director since 2013 and has worked alongside Jonathan as Fair Manager for the last 13 years.
12. Kate Bush: Former Head of Barbican Art Galleries, made multiple TV appearances on the subject of Art, and now now head of photography at the science museum
13. Duncan Campbell: Scotland’s entry for 55th Venice Biennale, 2014 Turner Prize nominee
14. Frank Cohen: Co-Founder Dairy Art Centre, London
15. Billy Childish: prolific painter, poet, printer and musician. One of the driving forces behind the L-13 Gallery as well as co-founder of the Art Hate Archives. (new)
16. David Chipperfield: Modernist architect, with two buildings shortlisted for the 2007 RIBA Stirling Prize, and winning with the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach.
17. Matthew Collings: began his career on Artscribe, before producing and presenting The Late Show for BBC, and is still involved with broadcasting on productions such as School of Saatchi and
18.Susan Collins: Slade Professor at the Slade School of Fine Art since 2010, (new the 2010 BBC documentary ‘Renaissance Revolution’. She also lectures at the City and Guilds London School of Art.
19. Sacha Craddock: art critic and curator, curator of the Bloomberg Space, tutor at the RCA, Chair of New Contemporaries, and sat on the 2009 Turner Prize judging panel.
20. Michael Craig-Martin: Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths London, previously a tutor at Goldsmiths where he fostered the talent of many of the YBAs.
21. Martin Creed: artists and musician, Turner Prize winner 2001, numerous exhibitions and projects in 2013. Look out for his retrospective exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 2014
22. Penelope Curtis: Director of Tate Britain with a scholarly background in British art, especially 20th-century sculpture, she was also the first exhibitions curator at Tate Liverpool when it opened in 1988. She was a judge of the Turner prize 2012.
23. Alan Davey: Chief Executive of the Arts Council, has worked in the Department of National Heritage, and as head of the Arts Division and Director of Arts and Culture in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
24. Jeremy Deller : English conceptual, video and installation artist. Winner of the Turner Prize in 2004, represented Britain at 2013 Venice Biennale
25. Melissa Denes: The Guardian’s arts editor, she also writes for the New Statesman.
26. Chris Dercon: Director of Tate Modern since 2011 with an enthusiasm for ‘mixing it up’,
27. Stephanie Dieckvoss: Director of Art14
28. Philip Dodd: arts broadcaster, writer, editor, curator
29. Emily Druiff: Emily Druiff is director of Peckham Platform – a new, independent UK charity that champions social artworks. Formerly known as Peckham Space, the gallery relaunched in January 2014 and was awarded NPO status by the Arts Council in July. The organisation is dedicated to commissioning artworks in partnership with community groups.
30. Zavier Ellis: Director of Charlie Smith Gallery, Curator of The Future Can Wait
31. Jason Gaiger: Head of the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, also a Fellow of St. Edmund Hall Oxford, previously worked as Director of Research of Art History in the Open University, and Recently published ‘Aesthetics and Painting’.
32. Ryan Gander: London-based artist, creator of the Locked Room Scenario in Shoreditch, awarded the 2010 Zurich Art prize, accompanied by an exhibition at the Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich, and winner of the 2003 Prix de Rome.
33. David Gryn: Director Artprojx, curated moving image projects (new)
34. Zaha Hadid: architect responsible for the 2012 London Olympics Aquatics Centre, and has won the RIBA Stirling Prize twice, winning this year for the Evelyn Grace Academy, Brixton. Designed Serpentine Sackler Gallery which opened in 2013.
35. Justin Hammond: Curator for Catlin Art Prize
36. Margaret Harrison: Feminist artist and winner of 2013 Northern Art Prize (new
37. James Hughes-Hallett: Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art.
38. Mark Hix: Director of Cock n’Bull Gallery and founder of the Hix Award for Emerging Art
39. Achim Borchardt Hume: Returns to Tate Modern as Head of Exhibitions. Previously Chief Curator at the Whitechapel Art Gallery
40. Heather Hubbs: Director of NADA art fairs (new)
41. Omar Kholeif Whitechapel Gallery, London curator will also curate the Armory Focus Initiative at the 2015 edition of the New York art fair*
42. Anselm Kiefer: Painter, sculptor subject of Royal Academy’s 2014 Autumn exhibition
43. Yayoi Kusama: Japanese artist who had a major lifetime culmination of her work shown at Tate Modern.
44. John Leighton: Director General of National Galleries of Scotland, taught Art History at Edinburgh University before moving into curating at the National Gallery, acquired the Artist’s Rooms collection for National Galleries of Scotland, and was awarded an honorary degree for services to the arts from Edinburgh University in 2009.
45. *Clare Lilley: Director of Programme Yorkshire Sculpture Park which was voted 2014 Museum of the year.
46. *James Lingwood/ Michael Morris: Co-Directors of Artangel since 1991, responsible for building Artangel into a significant international commissioning and producing organisation.
47. Jenni Lomax: Director of Camden Arts Centre, led the major refurbishment of the centre that was completed in 2004.
48. Declan Long: Irish art critic, curator and lecturer. He teaches at the faculty of visual culture at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin[1] and regularly appears on Lyric FM, discussing and reviewing contemporary art.
49. Sarah Lucas: part of the Young British Artist movement that emerged in the 1990s. The subject of a current major retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery
50. Anna Maloney: Director of Hackney WickED festival (new)
51. Rebecca May-Marston: Director of Hoxton’s Limoncello gallery, and One of the Independent’s 10 gallery owners who ‘are changing – and challenging – the British art scene’.
52. *Steve McQueen: Turner Prize winning video artist turned Oscar winning Filmmaker for this year’s 12 Years A Slave
53. Ben Moore: Artist/Curator of Art Below (new) a London based public art enterprise, founded in 2006 using billboard space in underground stations to display artworks in London and overseas.
54. Simon Morrissey: independent curator and writer on contemporary art, who regularly talks publicly about contemporary art and curating, as well as frequently acting as a visiting tutor on a number of leading Fine Art courses at UK universities.
55. Gregor Muir: Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.
56. Andrew Nairne: Director of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Chair of the Visual Arts and Galleries Association (VAGA), and former Director of Modern Art Oxford.
57. Elizabeth Neilson: Director 176 Zabludowicz Collection
58. Hans Ulrich Obrist/ Julia Peyton-Jones: the Serpentine Gallery’s Co-directors of Exhibitions and Programmes.
59. Kirsty Ogg: Former curator at the Whitechapel Gallery and of the London Open, and Lecturer in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London. Now director of Bloomberg New Contempories.
60. Cornelia Parker: Sculptor, OBE, RA, named 2014 Hogarth Fellow by London’s Foundling Museum, curated unique black and white room for this year’s RA Summer Exhibition
61. Sandra Penketh Director of Art Galleries National Museums Liverpool
62. Nicholas Penny, FSA a British art historian. Since Spring 2008 he has been director of the National Gallery in London.
63. *Grayson Perry: artist known for his work in ceramics, and awarded the Turner Prize in 2003, self-curated show The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum 2011, received BAFTA in 2013 for his series All in the best possible Taste and will deliver this year’s Reith Lectures for Radio 4
64. Michael Petry: multi-media artist, writer and curator. Director of MOCA London, co-founder of the Museum of Installation, (new)
65. Ciara Phillips: printmaker, 2014 Turner Prize nominee
66. Megan Piper/Clive Dutton: Co-Founders The Line a crowd funded campaign to create a sculpture walk in East London
67. Victoria Pomery: Director of Turner Contemporary since 2002, previously the Senior Curator at Tate Liverpool, has worked at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Australia, and was part of the selection panel for the 2007 Ebbsfleet Landmark Project.
68: Alan Powers: teacher, researcher, writer. Former chair of 20th century society (2007-12) and organizer of the campaign to save public art around UK. (new)
69. Gerhard Richter: German visual artist who specializes in abstract photorealism.
70. James Richards: multimedia artist, 2014 Turner Prize Nominee
71. David Roberts: Prolific art collector in the UK, in 2008 started the ‘David Roberts Art Foundation’ to help emerging artists and young curators.
72. Brett Rogers: Director of Photographer’s Gallery, awarded OBE in 2014
73. Ralph Rugoff: Director of the Hayward Gallery, previously Director of the Wattis Institute, best known for his curated work Just Pathetic (1990).
74. Sean Scully: RA, abstract painter, twice nominated for Turner prize, major exhibition at Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum 2014
75. Tino Seghal: British-German artist of partly Indian origin, based in Berlin. Exhibited at Tate Modern for the 2012 Unilever series commission. Won Golden Lion for best artist at 2013 Venice Biennale and nominated for Turner Prize 2013.
76. Nicholas Serota: Director of the Tate (1988-present) and the driving force behind the opening of the Tate Modern. Has participated on the board of The Architecture Foundation and chaired the Turner Prize jury.
Richard Serra: American Sculptor,
77. Amanda Sharp/Matthew Slotover: founders of Frieze magazine and the Frieze Art Fair in London and New York
78. David Shrigley: British Artist known for his work in humorous cartoon style, contributes a weekly cartoon to the Guardian’s weekend paper, and has exhibited internationally including solo shows in New York, Gateshead, Barcelona and Mainz. Nominated for 2013 Turner Prize.
79. Bob and Roberta Smith: contemporary British artist operating under pseudonym, famous for painting slogan-bearing signage in support of various activist campaigns.
80. Donald Smith: CHELSEA Space Director, with the ambition to create ‘a research development centre for invited art and design professionals, providing a gallery space, library research facilities, and a platform to develop personal projects that may otherwise remain unrealised’.
81. Polly Staple: Director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery, contributing editor to Frieze, on jury panel for Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2009- 2011, and one of the Guardian’s 2010 ‘women to watch’.
82. Katherine Stout: Head of Programmes at ICA, formerly Head of Contemporary art at Tate Modern.
83. Victoria Siddall: appointed Director of Frieze London and New York, currently Director of Frieze Masters
84. Callum Sutton; CEO Sutton PR – 2013 clients included Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries,
85. Deborah Swallow: Director of Academic Staff at the Courtauld Institute of Art
86. *Sally Tallant: Director of Liverpool Biennial 2014
87. Paul Warwick Thompson: Rector of the Royal College of Art, served as Director of the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum in New York until 2009, trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Member of the Wellcome Collection Advisory Committee at the Wellcome Trust.
88. Jeremy Till: Head of Central St Martins Art School since 2012 (new)
89. Gavin Turk: artists/sculptor one of the YBAs and champion of the emerging artist
90. John Tusa: British arts administrator, currently the Chairman of the University of the Arts London, presented BBC 2’s Newsnight from 1980-1986, from 1995-2007 was managing director of the Barbican Arts Centre, London, and is Honorary Chairman of theartsdesk.com.
91. *Richard Tuttle: post minimalist artist, Tate Modern Turbine Hall Commission 2014, Whitechapel Exhibition
92. Christoph Vogtherr: Director of the Wallace Collection from October 2011, previously the Curator of pre-1800 pictures at the Wallace Collection.
93. Tris Vonna-Michell: multimedia artist, 2014 Turner Prize nominee
94. Mark Wallinger: sculptor and installation artist, double Turner Prize nominee, won the Prize in 2007 for the work State Britain. Notable work includes the sculpture on the Fourth Plinth of Trafalgar Square Ecce Homo (1999). Created Labyrinth for 150th anniversary of the London Underground in 2013.
95. *Gillian Wearing: OBE, RA Conceptual artist, shortlisted for 2014 Netherlands Vincent Award for “appreciably influencing the development of contemporary art in Europe.”
96. Ai Weiwei: Chinese contemporary artist and political activist, awarded Das Glas der Vernuft Kassel citizen award in 2010, and serving as an Artistic consultant for the 2008 Olympics Bejing National Stadium.
97. Matt Williams: Curator of exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and co-editor of the annual publication Novel, which focuses on artists’ writing and poetry.
98.Godfrey Worsdale: Director of the BALTIC centre for contemporary art, Gateshead, responsible for hosting the Turner Prize 2011, Vice Chairman of the UK’s Visual Art and Galleries Association, and selector for the 2011 Threadneedle Prize for Painting and Sculpture.
99. Rose Wylie: painter, winner of the 2014 John Moores Painting Prize at the age of 80
100. *Anita and Poju Zabludowicz: founded the Zabludowicz Collection in 2007, a space for exhibitions, commissions and residencies, as well as establishing the Zabludowicz Collection ‘Curatorial Open’ and ‘Testing Ground’ programmes to promote contemporary art education.